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Syntactic complexity: Evidence for discontinuity and multidomination
Abstract
Generative analyses have standardly assumed severe constraints on the form of syntactic representations. This thesis explores consequences of relaxing the undermotivated constraints that prohibit discontinuous and converging configurations. A principal benefit of this revision is that it facilitates the assignment of a uniform constituent analysis to constructions that exhibit different constituent orders. This in turn permits a more general account of structure-sensitive phenomena involving anaphora and extraction, and provides a means of extending configurational definitions to derived constructions and languages with variable or otherwise problematic word order conventions. Chapter 2 presents an arboreal model of phrase structure which admits discontinuity and multidomination by partially dissociating order and structure, and relaxing the requirement that each node have a unique parent. Chapter 3 argues for a discontinuous constituent analysis of the Celtic languages Irish, Welsh and Breton, which conform to a dominant VSO pattern. Chapter 4 examines the word order patterns of the Polynesian language Niuean, which again instantiates a VSO order, and proposes a multidomination analysis of the Niuean raising constructions described by Seiter (1980). Chapter 5 examines subordinate Germanic constructions and suggests an analysis which assigns intercalated structural descriptions to cross-serial dependencies. Chapter 6 suggests a strategy for assigning an articulated hiearchical structure to free word order or 'nonconfigurational' languages, and reconsiders the question of Dyirbal's structural ergativity. Chapter 7 presents arguments, based on anaphoric and extraction domains, that unbounded dependency constructions in English instantiate a canonically discontinuous structure. Chapter 8 adumbrates strategies for admitting some of the discontinuous representations proposed in earlier chapters. Chapter 9 briefly summarizes previous arguments, examines some unresolved issues, and considers the correspondence between discontinuous structural analyses, and conventional representations containing 'gaps'.
Subject Area
Linguistics
Recommended Citation
Blevins, James Peter, "Syntactic complexity: Evidence for discontinuity and multidomination" (1990). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9110107.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9110107